I've read newer articles about this and they also just found out the guy who sold Iphone to gizmodo. Theres been talk that the guy who found phone didn't really try to return phone as earlier reported.
As for Chen I believe there has been a case where in a person of the press is somewhat protected with reporting goods that are stolen as they are just reporting information about the product. Although in Apples defense it how this item was acquired and the trail of 5k that was paid , we shall see how this plays out